ruwtz
Well-Known Member
I have a 24sqft flood table in veg with ebb&flow setup fed from a 55gal drum reservoir, and I want to automate the reservoir drain-to-waste at the flick of a switch or similar.
I currently drain AC condensate to an exterior rain barrel on the other side of the wall to the res, and I want to drain the res here also. This feeds the rest of my garden and water is precious. The rain barrel sits at a higher elevation than the res drum so gravity drain isn't an option and I need to pump. A PVC pipe run through the wall can be done to reach the top of the barrel which is a good 5-6ft above the bottom of the res drum, and will have 2 to 4 90deg elbow turns along the way.
Option 1: use existing pump in the res (rated at 390gph), by adding a second hose and inline shutoff valves to both lines to control water flow so that by closing one valve and opening the other it runs either to the table or to the barrel.
Option 2: put a second, stronger pump in the res and dedicate a new hose run and the PVC line out the wall to the rain barrel.
In either case, does anyone know how I can properly size the pump to do this job? Yeah yeah, I know the pump is rated to X number of gallons per hour, but am I right to assume pump power/water pressure is resisted by the 5-6ft of vertical lift and potential 360deg turns along the way?
If I choose option 1 and get the existing pump to do the work, how quickly do you think it would finish the job? Is it as simple as saying a rating of 390 gallons per hour equals 6.5 gallons per minute, so 55 gallons would take 8 1/2 minutes to complete??? If turns and vertical lift are limiting factors, how do work this out?
Anyway thats my best shot at common sense math, but I don't know anything so i'm asking here. So, please jump in!
I currently drain AC condensate to an exterior rain barrel on the other side of the wall to the res, and I want to drain the res here also. This feeds the rest of my garden and water is precious. The rain barrel sits at a higher elevation than the res drum so gravity drain isn't an option and I need to pump. A PVC pipe run through the wall can be done to reach the top of the barrel which is a good 5-6ft above the bottom of the res drum, and will have 2 to 4 90deg elbow turns along the way.
Option 1: use existing pump in the res (rated at 390gph), by adding a second hose and inline shutoff valves to both lines to control water flow so that by closing one valve and opening the other it runs either to the table or to the barrel.
Option 2: put a second, stronger pump in the res and dedicate a new hose run and the PVC line out the wall to the rain barrel.
In either case, does anyone know how I can properly size the pump to do this job? Yeah yeah, I know the pump is rated to X number of gallons per hour, but am I right to assume pump power/water pressure is resisted by the 5-6ft of vertical lift and potential 360deg turns along the way?
If I choose option 1 and get the existing pump to do the work, how quickly do you think it would finish the job? Is it as simple as saying a rating of 390 gallons per hour equals 6.5 gallons per minute, so 55 gallons would take 8 1/2 minutes to complete??? If turns and vertical lift are limiting factors, how do work this out?
Anyway thats my best shot at common sense math, but I don't know anything so i'm asking here. So, please jump in!
